Reflecting on Identity and Cup Stacking

On the second day of school, I like to start talking about identity and how our identities affect the way that we work in groups. As a follow up from a day spent struggling through the Inquiry Cube Puzzles, I think it's important that students also have the opportunity to continue working persistently and collaboratively with others in their class. Every year students ask why we start a science class without really talking about science but this week is all about building a foundation and classroom culture that will support the content work once we get there later. 

I often begin this class by finally introducing myself and sharing a little bit more about my life to help students build connections. I've always felt awkward talking about myself in front of a group of people so I've started to do this introduction in the form of a Kahoot game show. Instead of sharing out about myself, students are challenged to guess their way through my biography. This is way more fun and I'm sure it makes a bigger impact on the students as well. :)

1. How do you spell my name?
2. Where did I go to college?
3. How many bow ties do I own?
4. What is my secret talent?

After a little introduction, we dive into a reflection on our identities. There are two primary methods that we typically go about this and different teachers tend to connect better with one or the other. Using the compass points protocol and color personality assessment to frame our discussion not only helps students reflect on what they contribute in a group setting, it also gives us a common vocabulary to use throughout the year. After using one of these frameworks, it is useful to have students share out their categorization with rest of the class. Typically, there will be a pretty good mix of personalities represented in the class and it can be a great time to discuss the importance of valuing the different qualities that group members contribute. Each strategy is outlined below:

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Compass Points Protocol

This compass protocol is adapted from a resource posted by the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF) Harmony Education Center. 

In this protocol, students self-reflect on their preferences when working in a group setting. Compass directions are used to represent the four primary tendencies:

North - Acting (jumps right in)
South - Caring (includes everyone)
West - Paying attention to detail
East - Speculating (big picture)

I had my students reflect on their compass points and then write their name on a post-it and put it under their "direction". Each color represents a different one of my three physical science classes.

Compass Direction Room Signs (pdf)
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Compass Direction Room Signs (editable)
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Color Personalities

For classes that maybe aren't as good at self reflection yet, or need categories that are a little bit more actionable, we have also found success with personality "colors".

These colors track very closely with the compass protocol so there isn't really much reason to do both. The biggest benefit for the colors is that we were able to find a simple online quiz that reveals your "color" after you answer a handful of scenario questions.

Red - ACTION - Just get it done
Orange - CARETAKER - Let’s all get along
Yellow - PROBLEM SOLVERS - Let’s do it differently
Green - MOTIVATORS - Let’s experience it all

Is this online quiz perfect? No. But it is free and at least helps get the discussion started. 

Color Room Signs (pdf)
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Color Room Signs (editable)
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Cup Stacking Activity

To give students an opportunity to see these group work tendencies in action, we had them do the cup stacking challenge. 

Materials: (per group)

• Task Cards
• 6 cups
• 1 rubber band
• Piece of string per member

The Rules:

1. ALL group members must participate for each challenge
2. Only the rubber band can touch or move the cups
3. If the directions for each challenge are not followed correctly, groups will have to restart that challenge
4. Have each challenge checked by me before continuing to the next challenge

This year, we decided to up the ante a little bit and adapted the challenge cards originally created by Liz Larosa on middleschoolscience.com. Instead of just asking students to build a pyramid, they had a series of challenges to work through at their own pace. Not only did this make the task a little more interesting, it made it so that all students were continuously working even if they were not the first ones to finish a task. The added directions also added a fun element that required students to communicate in non-verbal ways.

Cup Stack Challenge Cards (pdf)
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Cup Stack Challenge Cards (editable)
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I only used four challenges for the sake of time but the unofficial fifth challenge was to build a tower as tall as possible. I happily provided extra cups for any groups looking to take on the extra task. :)